As Jessica Clark and Patricia Aufderheide (2013) talked about public broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, and network newscasts have played a central role in our life. Compare to how we used to get the information in the newspaper or magazines. Nowadays, people switch to the format of getting information online on social media. People can get a lot of information online and it is much more convenient. With the internet has been developed, we have changed our way of getting information and also using various social media online can let us also get connected with each other. “Digital public media will be an essential feature of truly democratic public life from here on in (Clark & Aufderheide,2013)” Social media engage in advocacy communication by using the online community chats to discuss the thoughts with each other. Social media can quickly develop many platforms in advocacy communications.
A hashtag is always used within a post on social media and it can help us if we are interested in a topic and is able to find the posts more quickly. It can also allow what we have written to be indexed by the social media network. Everyone can share their thoughts and opinions on the same topic and people can learn from each other. With the interview of Miller and Simpson, I have a better understanding of how PLN networks can help in our daily life with the online community. Markiel Simpson mentioned that he is using different social media online communities to join the group. It is all-natural for him to join the community. Twitter really helps him with his academic studies and develop his voice. Simpson also uses hashtags to drives other people’s interests. People are always getting different ideas from other people, using Twitter is really a good way to engage in advocacy communications. Major followers of Markiel Simpson are educators, and many people repost his ideas. We can see the impact of social media on communications. However, there are also some risks of social media. It is a public online platform. We need to be careful with the ideas that we post online. Most people will post positive ideas; however, we could not stop people from also post negative ideas that may influence them. This will challenge advocacy communication. Sharing language and tips on the way is always important in social media.
My PLN amplifies the views of others because I always look at other people’s opinions and it really influences my ideas. The most frequent social media that I use is Instagram, I always pay attention to who looked at my ins story and posts. I think better use of social media is to build more connections with others. Including the influencers and commentators. As for me, once I create my PLN, I always build it by adding valuable people. And I also choose a few interesting people from the social media that I choose and follow them. It is really helping because people I follow will also be of interest to me, and follow them to add them to my own PLN.
Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2013). A New Vision for Public Media – Open, Dynamic, and Participatory. In J. Pooley, L. Taub-Pervizpour, & S. C. Jansen (Authors), Media and social justice (pp. 55-67). New York: Palgrave.
Simpson, Markiel. “EDCI 338 – 2021 – 02 – 22 MARKIEL SIMPSON.” 21 Feb. 2021. doi: https://youtu.be/yCSpm1Lx8-A
Hi yanlinxu,
I am really appreciated to read your post! I am agree that you mention most people would express positive thoughts in their PLN, but we cannot prevent people to express their negative feelings in their PLN as well. I think allow different people to express different kinds of thoughts or feelings in their PLN or public communuties is an expression of inclusive of the internet. Also same as you, my PLN also amplify other’s opinion because I am more likely to hear other’s thoughts rather than express my own, but I think express our own thoughts would be a good idea to build our PLNs as well! Thanks for sharing your awesome post!
Angel Liu